Wild Wild Wireless

A recent report has shown that wireless service providers in Europe are pulling ahead of U.S. carriers in developing wireless data services.

European carriers plan to take advantage of faster Web transmission technology and general packet radio service (GPRS) to deliver the services. GPRS, which will be available next year, will support transmission speeds fast enough to browse the Internet in full color. Users will also be able to use GPRS to stay connected to the Internet for an entire day ... yeah, but how much is that going cost you on your monthly bill?!

In offering GPRS, carriers will be able to charge subscribers based on the amount of data transmitted, rather than by the minute. While industry players in the U.S. are also pursuing wireless data, the market has been stymied by a lack of standards and carriers' differing opinions over which 3G technology should be adopted. Europe's adoption of a single standard has helped carriers offer built-in paging and messaging functions years before such features were launched in the U.S.

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